Jackendoff/Foundations of Language: BBS Multiple Book Review

Dear Dr. Qwerty, Below is a link to the forthcoming precis a book accepted for Multiple Book Review in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS). PRECIS OF: Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution by Ray Jackendoff http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Jackendoff-07252002/Referees/ Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), is an international, interdisciplinary journal providing Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in the biobehavioral and cognitive sciences. Please note that it is the *BOOK*, not the precis, that is to be reviewed. Reviewers must be BBS Associates or nominated by a BBS Associate. To be considered as a reviewer for this book, to suggest other appropriate reviewers, or for information about how to become a BBS Associate, please reply by EMAIL within three (3) weeks to: calls(a)bbsonline.org The Calls are sent to 10,000 BBS Associates, so there is no expectation (indeed, it would be calamitous) that each recipient should comment on every occasion! Hence there is no need to reply except if you wish to comment, or to nominate someone to comment. If you are not a BBS Associate, please approach a current BBS Associate (there are currently over 10,000 worldwide) who is familiar with your work to nominate you. All past BBS authors, referees and commentators are eligible to become BBS Associates. A full electronic list of current BBS Associates is available at this location to help you select a name: http://www.bbsonline.org/Instructions/assoclist.html If no current BBS Associate knows your work, please send us your Curriculum Vitae and BBS will circulate it to appropriate Associates to ask whether they would be prepared to nominate you. (In the meantime, your name, address and email address will be entered into our database as an unaffiliated investigator.) To help you decide whether you would be an appropriate reviewer for this book, an electronic draft of the precis (only) is retrievable at the URL that follows the abstract below. ======================================================================= *** IMPORTANT *** Please do not prepare a review unless you are formally invited. To help us put together a balanced list of reviewers, it would be most helpful if you would send us as specific as possible an indication of the relevant expertise you would bring to bear on the subject, and what aspect of the book you would anticipate commenting upon. We will then let you know whether it was possible to include your name on the final formal list of invitees. As noted earlier, it is the *BOOK*, not the precis, that is to be reviewed. So please indicate whether you already have the book or would require a review copy to be sent to you if invited. (Note: Please do not simply indicate that we have your expertise information in our records. We request this information in order to simplify and thus, speed up the selection process.) ======================================================================= _______________________________________________________________________ PRECIS OF: Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution Ray Jackendoff Program in Linguistics, MS 013 Brandeis University Waltham, MA 02454 USA jackendoff(a)brandeis.edu ABSTRACT: The goal of this study to reintegrate the theory of generative grammar into the cognitive sciences. Generative grammar was correct to focus on the child's acquisition of language as its central problem, leading to the hypothesis of an innate Universal Grammar. However, generative grammar was mistaken to assume that the syntactic component is the sole course of combinatoriality, and that everything else is "interpretive." The proper approach is a parallel architecture, in which phonology, syntax, and semantics are autonomous generative systems, linked by interface components. The parallel architecture leads to an integration within linguistics, and to a far better integration with the rest of cognitive neuroscience. It fits naturally into the larger architecture of the mind/brain and permits a properly mentalistic theory of semantics. It leads to a view of linguistic performance in which the rules of grammar are directly involved in processing. Finally, it leads to a natural account of the incremental evolution of the language capacity. http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Jackendoff-07252002/Referees/ ====================================================================== *** SUPPLEMENTARY ANNOUNCEMENT *** (1) Call for Book Nominations for BBS Multiple Book Review In the past, Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS) had only been able to do 1-2 BBS multiple book treatments per year, because of our limited annual page quota. BBS's new expanded page quota will make it possible for us to increase the number of books we treat per year, so this is an excellent time for BBS Associates and biobehavioral/cognitive scientists in general to nominate books you would like to see accorded BBS multiple book review. (Authors may self-nominate, but books can only be selected on the basis of multiple nominations.) It would be very helpful if you indicated in what way a BBS Multiple Book Review of the book(s) you nominate would be useful to the field (and of course a rich list of potential reviewers would be the best evidence of its potential impact!). *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Please note: Your email address has been added to our user database for Calls for Commentators, the reason you received this email. If you do not wish to receive further Calls, please feel free to change your mailshot status through your User Login link on the BBSPrints homepage, using your username and password. 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